Africa-Press – Angola. The 57th Plenary Session of the Southern African Development Community (SADC)’s Parliamentary Forum was opened on Monday in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, by the Zimbabwean Head of State, Emmerson Mnangagwa, an act being attended by the Speaker of the Parliament of Angola, Carolina Cerqueira.
The event takes place under the motto “Using Artificial Intelligence for Effective Parliamentary Processes in the SADC Region: Experiences, Challenges and Opportunities”.
The aim of the event is for parliamentarians to analyze the reports from the different working committees of the Forum, including the Committee on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment, chaired by Angolan MP Ruth Mendes.
The Angolan delegation to the event also includes MPs Luísa Damião, Ruth Mendes, Pedro Sebastião, Diamantino Mussokola and Teresa Neto.
Until Friday, the members of the Forum, which is undergoing the process of transformation into the regional parliament following the ratification of the memorandum by its members, will still analyse issues related to regional integration, parliamentary cooperation, among other matters of common interest.
In his speech, the Zimbabwean Head of State, Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, reaffirmed the need for the parliaments of the region to strengthen the spirit of unity and solidarity with the aim to make SADC more prosperous and developed.
The Zimbabwean statesman who is also the Acting Chairperson of SADC, also stressed that the parliaments of the region should be sensitive, inclusive and interactive institutions to promote and defend actions that contribute to the well-being of the populations.
Use of new technologies
Regarding the use of new technologies in parliamentary institutions, he said that they should be seen as mechanisms for the modernisation of parliamentary activity in a variety of ways.
He then stressed that parliaments must embrace new technologies to make the most of artificial intelligence and, in this way, modernise their services, highlighting the need to increase cooperation between the region’s parliaments, as well as to strengthen parliamentary oversight.
The SADC Parliamentary Forum is a regional inter-parliamentary organization made up of MPs from 14 national parliaments in Southern Africa, namely Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
It was established on September 8, 1997, during the Summit of the Community’s Heads of State and Government.
Its main objective is to provide a platform for dialogue to support and enhance regional integration through parliamentary participation, as well as to promote practices at the level of parliamentary roles in regional integration and cooperation.
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